On Easter Saturday, the hottest ticket in town for people who care about music, art, or merely the art of getting wasted, was actually out of town, at a semi-secret party in a Fo Tan factory. Crammed into the converted space, with a “polar fog” art installation adding colour to the white-washed industrial walls, partiers liquored up and enjoyed tunes spun by DJs and belted out by post-punk hipsters The Yours and two-man metal destroyers DP.

The party organiser – who wants to remain anonymous to avoid attracting unwanted attention from the authorities – says he wanted to recreate the crusty, noisy, down-and-dirty warehouse parties of London, where he’s from, and Brooklyn, where he lived before moving to Hong Kong 18 months ago.

“I was trying to create a warehouse vibe where people have to get off their arses and look for something rather than just wander vacantly into Lan Kwai Fong,” he says.
And therein lies the appeal of the factory party. It’s something you have to work for; something raw and gritty; something removed from the vapidity of getting hammered in the same old club or pussyfooting around in a hotel ballroom. And in Hong Kong, it’s one of the few options for making some noise and being truly creative with a space.

Heavy duty
“Coming up with a venue is definitely one of the hardest challenges in Hong Kong,” says Kevin Poon, co-owner of CLOT Inc (www.clotinc.com), a lifestyle consultancy that has thrown more than a few parties in its time, including the high-profile Coach party with British musician John Mayer in West Kowloon last year. Though it stages parties in all kinds of venues, Poon’s company likes using factories because of their spatial versatility. “It’s very easy to manipulate what type of experience you want.”

The factories CLOT uses are mostly in Aberdeen, and they’ve been discovered by old-fashioned scouting: driving round the areas and checking out the spaces. Friends and word-of-mouth also come in handy.

That’s the same way Orient Events (2536 0828, www.orientevents.com), a total-package events design company, goes about finding its factory spaces – and it, too, turns to Aberdeen.

“We always encourage our clients to use raw spaces, so we have more space to work on and more room to design and to create,” says project manager Gabriel Mendonca, who points to 2008’s Chanel Mobile Art opening party in the old Star Ferry car park as one of Orient’s most memorable events.

Mendonca says that if people want to throw a great factory party, they’ve got to be prepared to massage their budget. “They have to know that doing an event, it’s quite complicated,” he says. “It involves people, labour costs, a lot of things. And they have to have a theme in mind.”

He estimates costs can range from $350,000 to $5 million a night.

Light industry
If your name isn’t Louis Vuitton or Prada, however, there are more modest options in Hong Kong. You could start by sniffing around factories yourself to find something wallet friendly. A band room in Kwun Tong, for instance, might be a good option – they generally cost less than $4,500 a month and are often only occupied for a couple nights a week. A bit of rejigging here and there can quickly turn a band room into a decent mid-sized den of deviousness. Alternatively, you could strike a deal with an art gallery space.

For instance, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery (2810 0065, www.10chancerylanegallery.com) has a 3,000 sq ft space with five-metre-high ceilings in Chai Wan Industrial City. In December, the gallery hosted a kick-ass Kitsune dance party, cramming 1,000 people into the space – and annoying the building’s owners in the process. The gallery’s director, Katie de Tilly, has since kept events at the venue on a more modest scale. She reckons 100 to 150 people is the optimum number, to allow people ample room to move and a chance to enjoy the art and views.

The space has hosted corporate presentations, dinner parties and a Venetian masked ball. And it’s good for day-time use, too: there have been inquiries about a bar mitzvah, and de Tilly wants to host an early evening disco there for her 13-year-old daughter’s birthday.

“What’s nice about it is that it’s a really original venue. It’s not like a hotel,” says de Tilly. “You can do whatever you want. You can completely transform the space according to your theme.” There’s also a big window looking out onto the harbour, and you don’t have to worry about noise restrictions or getting out by a certain time. You can also bring in your own food and booze, as long as you don’t sell it on the premises.

The rental price is negotiable but the rack rate is in the tens of thousands. By the time you add food and drink for 100 people, de Tilly reckons, you could throw a great party for about $60,000.

If all that fails, keep an eye on the market for your very own factory. With the economy slumping and orders dwindling fast, you might just get yourself a bargain.

Read our other features:
Action parties
Party on a boat
Costume parties
Alternative party spaces

See Also:
Party entertainment for hire